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More Than A Dozen Landslides Wreak Havoc Across Pittsburgh Area

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — More than a dozen landslides throughout the Pittsburgh area have been wreaking havoc for the past week, forcing residents to evacuate and shutting down roads.

A major slide on the border of Duquesne Heights and the West End destroyed a home on Sunday. The slide started Friday afternoon with mud spilling onto Greenleaf Street. The homeowner and his wife were ordered to evacuate as a precaution.

The house slid and fell apart as mud and trees came down the hill and poured over a retaining wall onto Route 51.

“The first priority is to stop the slide and to stop additional damage,” said City of Pittsburgh Director of Mobility and Infrastructure Karina Ricks. “Landslides are unpredictable. But from what we’ve seen we believe the largest mass has come down already so we may see some slow progression still.”

“I showed up this morning at about 7 o’clock, and there were a couple rocks lying there,” Denny Miskevics, of Baldwin Township, said. “Next thing you know, about 7:30, 8 o’clock, more started coming down.”

No one was evacuated and officials said the hillside looked stable, but they were planning to keep an eye on it.

“We heard some dirt fall, but it fell over two doors up the street. In the dark, you can’t see so in the morning looked and said it’s not my yard and about an hour later, kaboom that all came down at once,” she said.

Several other landslides throughout the area forced roads to shut down for hours while crews cleaned mud and debris away.

(Photo Credit: KDKA Photojournalist Tim Lawson)

This past weekend, landslides shut down roads in the South Side Slopes and the Squirrel Hill/Swisshelm Park area, and a tree fell and brought down wires and a transformer onto Scotia Hollow Road in West Elizabeth.